At the beginning of the spring semester my roommate and I began thinking about what we were going to do for Spring Break. Last semester we had gone hiking in Zion National Park, Utah, but we did not get to go on all the hikes we wanted, so we decided we would go back. This park is known for its red rock, the amazing hiking experiences, rock climbing, and the photography opportunities it provides.

My roommate and I set out on our hike at 8 o’clock in the morning. The sun was just starting to climb over the horizon and was bathing the landscape in light. This was one of the more strenuous hikes as we had to scramble over rocks, wade through water, and climb up slippery, moss covered rocks. We hiked The Subway for three hours before reaching the end. The hike became visually appealing as we approached the end. We stopped many times on the way to take pictures, but what I was most excited for was the end of the hike. We had reached the end before the sun was fully over the mountain. My roommate and I hiked into The Subway and were taken aback by the beauty. It was amazing thinking about how it all formed. It was very slippery due to the water and the moss covered ground. Many holes had formed inside allowing pools to swirl and to flow and to make for a breathtaking experience. I took a few photographs from inside as I knew it would be impossible to explain to people how amazing this was. All the photos I took were handheld as I did not have a tripod with me. If I had one I am sure I would have captured even more incredible photographs. When I took the photo I wanted it to show the beauty of nature. I wanted people to know that sometimes you have to go out of your way to capture something great. I believe this photo encapsulates that perfectly.

I took this photo with my Canon Rebel EOS T5i, with the 18-55mm kit lens. The focal length was at 30mm with an aperture of f/4.0. ISO was set to 400. I had the shutter speed at 1/25 as I wanted to capture the motion of the water and make it look a little like mist. There was some post processing involved. I lowered the exposure on the rocks and upped the contrast to bring out the formations. This also brought out the water pool and the light coming in through the tunnel. I saturated the green in the pool to make it stand out and also saturated the light in the tunnel to show how it shined through. I cropped very little on the top so as to not detract from the photo. I am very pleased with the final result.

About the Photographer:
My name is Ariel White and I am a senior at Northern Arizona University. I will be graduating with a major in Electronic Media and Film (renamed to Creative Media and Film) and a minor in Photography. I chose Photography as my minor because I felt it went hand in hand with my major. Coming up with visually captivating photographs would work almost exactly for setting up scenes for a TV show or film. I had always been interested in photography, but I never had the means nor the money to let my interest grow until Spring of 2014. Once that camera was in my hands I knew it was something I would use throughout my life.

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About Me

Howdy! My name is Colleen Miniuk-Sperry and after spending 10 years stuck in a grey cubicle, I escaped Corporate America in 2007 and have been a full-time freelance photographer, writer, instructor, and speaker under the "CMS Photography" business name ever since. I specialize in nature, travel and outdoor recreation photography and writings. Besides being incredibly passionate (obsessed?) with photography and writing, I'm fluent in sarcasm, love French Chardonnay (though I don't discriminate against any type of wine), and much prefer dark, moody cloudy skies to clear blue ones. To read a full bio and to learn more about my work, please visit my main CMS Photography website at: www.cms-photo.com. Thanks for stopping by!

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About the Author

Colleen Miniuk-Sperry fled the grey cubicle walls and left her unfulfilling software engineering job behind at Intel Corporation in 2007 to pursue a more meaningful life as a full-time outdoor photographer, writer, publisher, instructor, and speaker. Her credits include National Geographic calendars, Arizona Highways, AAA Via, National Parks Traveler, On Landscape, and a broad variety of other publications. She has served three times as an Artist-in-Residence with Acadia National Park.

She authored the award-winning guidebooks, Photographing Acadia National Park: The Essential Guide to When, Where, and How and Wild in Arizona: Photographing Arizona’s Wildflowers, A Guide to When, Where, & How (1st and 2nd editions) as well as the instructional eBook, Seeing the Light in Outdoor Photography.

Colleen offers highly-acclaimed photography workshops and women’s photography retreats (called “Sheography™”) through her own company, CMS Photography, as well as Arizona Highways Photography Workshops, Arizona Wildlife Federation, The Nature Conservancy, and numerous private engagements in the past. She also provides inspirational and educational presentations at photography clubs, conferences, and symposiums, as well at art clubs and outdoor-related organizations across the country.

Colleen is an active member, Secretary on the Board of Directors for Outdoor Writers Association of America, where she served as the interim Executive Director in 2017.